Photo by PCMag
The Atari 2600 is known for having very simple games, but nonetheless, they are classics. Pitfall, a shoddy port of Pacman, Adventure, Combat, Jungle Hunt, Space Invaders, Asteroids, and more are all available on this grandpa of videogame consoles.
I don't have much experience with the Atari 2600 system itself. I've only ever seen one at my dad's friend's house but back in the early 2000s I had an Atari 2600 emulator on my PC, downloaded by my dad. He never owned a 2600 himself, but his neighbour back in the 80's did - that thing was the talk of the town back in the day. Owning a console in 80's Brazil meant you were filthy RICH.
So because of that neighbour, my dad got to experience a bunch of Atari 2600 games he'd never have played. But one stuck to his mind all these decades later, and it's the one I want to talk about.
River Raid
Released in 1982 by Activision and developed by Carol Shaw, this is the game in the 2600 that in my opinion controls the best and also has a great variety throughout its many stages, with good enough graphics to call it a standout title at that department.
You'll be going up against tankers, helis, fighter jets, bridges and more.
Throughout the stages you'll find FUEL icons which you can fly on to replenish your fuel gauge, or destroy them if you have enough fuel to get more points - and at every 10k points you get an extra life.
This game was also released in other systems such as the PC, MSX, ZX Spectrum and C64, with it getting slightly better graphics on systems that were superior to the 2600 but the 2600 version remains my favourite.
The C64 version
I really wanna experience this game on an actual 2600 one day, with its original joystick and everything, it must be fun!
I plan on bringing more of my favourite games for each system and telling a little bit about them. I'll probably go in generation order, so that's why I'm starting with such an old console like the 2600.
Thanks for reading!
